LHS Management discloses: "They may stop seeing Epilepsy patients if Government don't come to their rescue

The management of Loreto Health Services, a leading Health Services clinic in Makeni city since 1997 has revealed during a day's awareness raising workshop on Epilepsy and mental illnesses organized for Police, Prisons Officers, Nurses, Epileptic patients, CSOs and stakeholders in Bombali District that: "they may stop seeing Epilepsy patients if Government don't come to their rescue."

The clinic which is the sole health center raising awareness about epilepsy and mental illnesses, at the  same time treating thousands of epileptic patients in the North, East and Southern region has called on the Government of Sierra Leone and  other well wishers to urgently intervene and support them financially to further upkeep its health services delivery on epilepsy.

Nurse Adama Micheal an experienced nurse and epilepsy champion who also doubles as the deputy overseer of the clinic explained that: “It’s 23 years plus now since our Clinic started delivering health services for thousands of epilepsy patients in the North, East and Southern region and we’ve never been supported by the governments, grace for some philanthropists based in overseas that have been providing us with some financial support that we have been using to purchase the highly expensive medicines which we’ve been using to treat epilepsy patients.

“The medicines were are administering to epilepsy patients are very hard to get in country so we have been ordering for these medicines from abroad and the processes involved in getting these medicines from  overseas are very tedious,  costly and more considering the processes to get the approval from the Pharmacy Board to import such medicines and clearing them from the airport as well may be way expensive especially if the consignment is not received from the airport on the same day of arrival.

“The dosage for one epilepsy patient alone is at least 1,000 tablets and the number of cases we are treating increases on a daily bases. In Bombali District alone we’re currently seeing over 3,700 patients and twice this number accounts for other districts in the South, Easter region and the financial burden is becoming on bearable we may limit the number of patients or possibly stop if we don’t get support from government or others,” she further remarked.

By: Abdul Fofanah